I'll gie ye two days to think and to talk it ower wi' the wife.

And--I'm tellin' ye're a muckle ass and no the sensible man I've thought ye if ye do not say aye." The doctor did no wait for Jamie to answer him.

He was a wise man, that doctor; he knew how Jamie wad be feelin' just then, and he turned away.

Sure enough, Jamie was ready to curse him and bid him keep his money.

But when he was left alone, and walked home, slowly, thinking of the offer, he began to see that love for the wean urged him nigh as much to accept the offer as to reject it.
It was true, as the doctor had said, that it was better for the bairn to live and grow strong and well than to dee and be buried.